Until Matt & I showed them how it was done, that is. We (along with some friends from Matt's work in New Zealand) threw a Halloween bash that that country has never seen. Matt and I made a pretty awesome Halloween costume for us. We were pretty adorable, and this happens to be where the pink hair trend started for me, just in case you were wondering ;) I figured streaks would be better than doing my whole head pink... but what do you think?

I am not sure what I will be for Halloween this year (it will definitely take some thinking to come up with something better than last year), but I do know, that these cupcakes will be a part of our Halloween traditions.

If you are looking for something really easy do make that doesn't require a lot of time and energy, these really are the perfect dessert. They have the great Halloween feel without having to buy a lot of crafty ingredients. Just orange and black food coloring is all you need for these, along with any Halloween-ish cupcake liners, and you can go simple with the basic orange and black sprinkles like I did, or go whatever direction you would like with these.

You could even go as far as to say the frosting on top may look like witches hats (especially the black ones), so you could take that theme and run with it too. These cupcakes are so versatile and most of all, so easy! And what fun would it be to have the kiddos helping out with decorating these.

If you're looking for something easy to bake this Halloween, but still fun and super tasty, then you have found it with these Black & Orange Velvet Halloween Cupcakes.

The only issue I found was with the orange coloring going into the cake batter. It took a lot of coloring and it still ended up a bit of a reddish color. Next time maybe I would change the color scheme a little to go with a darker color. The cocoa powder really makes lighter colors hard to cover it up. But I was really in love with the orange frosting on top. Just run with it and have fun. And if you're curious, this is the coloring I used for both the cake and frosting, in orange and black.

Turn the stand mixer to low, and slowly add in the flour mixture, mixing until well combined.

Divide the batter in half in two separate bowls. Using the stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, add in your food colorings until you get the desired colors in the two separate bowls of batter.

Fill cupcake liners 1/2-2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when you lightly press on them.

Remove and let cool completely while you make your icing.

For the icing, combine the butter, cream cheese and vanilla on medium speed in a stand mixer.

Turn the mixer on low and add in the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until fully combined.

Splash in some milk if you need to thin it out at all, otherwise divide the icing into two separate bowls and using the stand mixer or a hand mixer, add in your food or icing coloring until you reach the desired color of icing.

Once cupcakes are fully cooled, add your icing into two separate piping bags fitted with a round tip (I used Wilton tip #12), and pipe, keeping centered on cupcake, fill, then pull up slightly keeping some pressure, then give a pointy "witch hat" top by lessening pressure and pulling up.

these jump starts on holidays is killing me! i haven't been to target or the such lately cause i'm kind of avoiding all that madness! these cupcakes look beautiful and so cute! love that orange frosting!

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